Disclaimer: Iie...I still do not own Naruto or any of the wonderful characters used in my story.

A/N: Wow, thanks for the reviews (everyone that reviewed.) I really really appreciate them. I'm trying my best to portray all of the characters correctly, but I plan to have a little fun with them later on in this chapter. Temari should be making her arrival soon, and then it will truly be Shimari!

Chapter 2

Inhibition

Standing in front of the mirror in his room, Shikamaru checked his clothes out one last time. He was never one to fuss over clothing, but tonight was his 'going away' party. It had been three days since his visit with the Hokage, and news of his departure had spread quickly. Running a slim but well worked hand through his hair, he rummaged in a box on his dresser and retrieved a tie to put his hair up with. Shikamaru had told all his friends not to bother about throwing him a party, (parties were troublesome), but his opinion was swiftly over-ridden. Thus, every single one of his friends, from Naruto to even the Hokage herself had insisted on seeing him off properly.

Stretching the hair tie in his fingers, Shikamaru was surprised by a light sounding snap.

Great...it broke...

A search for another hair tie was fruitless, and thus the shadow wielder was forced to wear his hair down for the first time in years. Running a comb through his slightly damp hair, he realized how long it had gotten. The soft coffee colored locks reached the nape of his neck and framed his face in an attractive way. Tucking the majority of it behind his ears, a few strands managed to come loose and lie over his eyes while lightly resting his smooth cheekbones.

Glancing at his jounin vest draped across the back of a chair in his room, he contemplated on whether or not to sport it for the evening's festivities. Deciding against it, Shikamaru placed the keys to his house in the pocket of his loose fitting cargo shorts, tied his headband around his arm in his customary style and headed out.

Judging from the position of the sun, it was roughly around 7:30 p.m. Rich hues of smoldering orange and smoky pink lit up the sky as he continued to his destination.

He had been told that the gathering would be held at a local pub he frequented.

He wasn't what you would call a 'drinker's drinker' but more of a casual drinker. Passing one of the training fields on his way to the pub, he stopped and admired it. The grass was mid-calf length and swayed gently in the breeze. From the distance he was at, it almost appeared to be a sea with the waves gently lapping at the trunks of trees. The sweet scent of clover in the warm summer evening brushed past the sides of his face and slightly tousled his silky dark brown hair. Enjoying the evening, he dreaded his departure to Suna the next day even more.

Suna...hot...dry...far away...and most of all troublesome.

Resuming with his journey, Shikamaru picked up his pace and hurried to the pub. Being late to your own going away party would not yield good results. Lest should he be victim to the wrath of Sakura and her inhumane strength. Shuddering at the horrifying thought, Shikamaru broke into a brisk walk.

Women, especially strong women, are such a hassle.

­----------

Sighing into his palms, Suna's Kazekage growled at the complete imbecility and incompetence of some of the people he called advisors. The gourd beside his desk was threatening to erupt with sand if he didn't hear some good news...soon. The council meeting he attended in the morning had only left him with a pounding headache and news of a possible drought in Suna merely worsened it.

Too add to that, peace talks with the Mist country hadn't gone so well. It appeared the Mist's leader was still angry about their last meeting. The meeting where Gaara had lost his temper at the incredibly long and boring ceremony where some half-assed dancers were performing for him, and Sabaku no Gaara had proceeded to threaten the leader with the Shukaku if he didn't pick up the pace and let Gaara return to his own country.

Rolling his eyes, the smoky red head justified his actions in his mind.

Half assed dancers + half assed leader equals a half assed country. It's as simple as that.

Two knocks on the door reminded him of his headache and seemed to painfully reverberate in the back of his head.

The door swung open and standing behind it was the tattooed face of Kankuro. Gaara sighed; his older brother was one person he could trust. He hoped.

"Gaara..." Kankuro said as his voice trailed of near the end of his statement.

While running his hand violently through his deep scarlet hair, Gaara nodded at his brother.

Leaning against the edge of the desk, Kankuro brought Gaara up to date with the drought situation.

"We have a good amount of water supply in the underground storage, but the weather is unusually dry this season. We just have to be careful about water usage, and things will be fine."

Gaara nodded thoughtfully at his brother's advice.

A gust of wind abruptly ripped through the room and sent the papers on the Kazekage's desk whirling in mini tornadoes.

A light clink was heard against the glass of the balcony.

Glancing over, neither man was surprised at what they saw. There on the balcony railing sat Temari. Her ornate fan rested against the French doors leading into the office. She preferred this entrance to the normal one everyone else went through to see the Hokage. Even though Gaara disliked this, she could get away with it. After all, the Kazekage was her little brother.

Her smooth blonde hair intermingled with brown fluttered lightly in the gentle wind as she scanned the town below her. The desert air filled with the scent of spices from the foods being cooked by the vendors below; the feeling of the hot desert sun and grit of the sand on her skin, those were things she loved about Suna. Closing her eyes, Temari enjoy the atmosphere around her.

Kankuro smiled at his elder sister with her eyes closed, winding tousling her hair. To say Temari was pretty just would not suffice. She had always been cute as a child, but as she entered her teenage years she seemed to blossom more. This did not go unnoticed by the other males in the village either. Initially, Temari had been too busy with her shinobi training to be concerned about boys. Too add to that, she was somewhat of a tomboy in her early teenage years. By the time she was sixteen her boyish phase had passed and she began to notice that she had a following. This did not escape the eyes of her younger brother, Gaara either.

The entire male population of Suna was aware of who the brother of the lovely Temari was. Sabaku no Gaara. Many men had resigned themselves to admiring Temari from afar, or even maybe just maybe having a portion of a conversation with her at the open markets when she bought groceries. This though, only happened when neither Gaara nor Kankuro was with her, and they were very sure neither of the brothers was within a ten mile radius. Men brave enough to approach the wind wielder while Gaara was with her, usually ended up with an injury by the end of the encounter.

Then it happened. Sabaku no Gaara became Kazekage. He was feared before, but now any man with any sort of "intentions" with his sister was considered to have a death wish. Temari never paid much attention to the many bumbling idiots that attempted to pursue her. She would never consider anyone unless they could stand toe to toe with her in a battle, and so far none of them were up to her standards.

Gaara's over protection angered her somewhat though. She always fought with him about scaring away men. If they wanted to chase after her, let them. If memory served her right, she was Sabaku no Temari, and she was not considered weak by any means. Her strong will had been a dominant trait in her since childhood, and Gaara's large defense was like him lighting a match to her gasoline. Her other brother Kankuro, on the other hand, was not considered as frightening as Gaara, but Kankuro was still one to be feared. It wasn't past Kankuro to punch a few guys' lights out.

Beneath both brothers' harsh exteriors, especially Gaara's, she knew it was love. As he grew older, she began to understand some of his outlandish behavior and interpret them as his way of showing he cared about her. He was never one to directly show it, but in his own odd ways, he did.

Stretching, Kankuro raised his large, muscular arms and yawned.

"I guess I should be heading out now. I still have some things to do before I go home. Tell Temari I'll be home a bit later tonight."

"Ok." Gaara said as he nodded. All three siblings had lived together before, and Gaara becoming Kazekage hadn't changed anything. Granted, they moved out the one bedroom shack they were living in before, and bought larger dwelling. Now each sibling had his own bedroom, bathroom, and there were other rooms with various purposes.

"Oh, by the way."

"Hnn?" The red head asked, his attention slightly wandering.

"Konoha sent their shinobi for the exchange."

"Who is it?"

"I dunno. I guess we'll find out when he or she gets here in the next few days."

"I see."

------------

Shikamaru's going away party was in full swing by the time he had consumed his third drink. The warm feeling in his chest from the alcohol calmed the restlessness that had been plaguing him for the past week now. Many people had shown up to see him off, and he was surprised when the Godaime herself made a personal appearance.

"Oi...Tsunade-sama..."

"Heh, I decided to come see you off."

"Ah, arigatou."

"Of course."

The uncomfortable silence that spanned for the next 30 seconds was quickly interrupted by the drunken antics of Naruto, Kiba, and Lee.

Before Shikamaru had arrived, those three, including Sakura had been talking casually. Sakura had mentioned to Naruto not to get too drunk, and somewhere in the middle of the topic of drunkenness Sakura mentioned that she had never seen Shikamaru drunk. Those words sent the devious wheels in Naruto's mind turning. No sooner had he conspired a plan against the shadow wielder and somehow convinced Lee and Kiba to go along with his cockamamie arrangement for getting their fellow jounin as wasted and plastered as they possibly could.

Now three hours later, their plan was being set into action. The trio had consumed about three and half drinks which was just enough to help them seem convincible, and were now acting as drunk as they possibly could. At one end of the pub, Naruto was confessing his love to a glass of mixed nuts sitting on the bar. Kiba was hitting on the wooden support beam at the other end of the pub, and Lee was running around waving his drunken fist alternating between crying over the beauty of youth, and becoming angry over old age and losing the glorious beauty of youth.

Shikamaru was still somewhat sober, but he was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. The behavior of his 'plastered' friends led to a great deal of laughter, especially on Shikamaru's part.

Noticing the shadow master was beginning to lose inhibition, Naruto ordered another drink and sent it Shikamaru's way.

'Oh no Naruto...I couldn't drink anosher... troubleshooome..." Shikamaru replied, his words beginning to slur together.

"Aww Shikamaru come on...after all this is your going away party. You gotta have some fun before you have to start living under Gaara. Tch, that's enough to make someone want to drink, dattebayo!"

Sighing, Shikamaru downed another drink. Initially, the alcohol stung his throat, but after the primary discomfort he was once again enveloped in the warm feeling of the lukewarm liquid spreading throughout him and dulling his senses.

Kiba and Lee followed Naruto's actions, and the dark haired young man consumed four more drinks over the course of the next hour. By the end of the night Shikamaru had consumed a total of seven drinks and three out of the four were hard liquor.

It was now 11:15 p.m. and Shikamaru was thoroughly drunk. Most of the people had returned home, but those who remained were highly entertained by the shadow wielder's drunken inhibition.

The strange thing about Shikamaru's drunkenness though, was that he was that still had very good control of his Kagemane no Jutsu. In fact, it seemed even stronger when he was drunk. Everyone in the pub was at the mercy of his jutsu. To add to things, it was now night time outside, and the darkness only strengthened the shadow technique.

Shikamaru's drunken laughter echoed throughout the pub as his friends were helpless in their positions. Naruto was stuck with one leg sticking out while his right hand was frozen in a pumping motion; Kiba was stuck to the wall like a fly; and Lee...well Lee had passed out by now. So he had nothing to worry about.

Everyone there was weakened by the amount of alcohol coursing through their veins and none could succeed in releasing the jutsu. Watching the hilarity of the scene from a dark corner, Asuma decided it was time for good ninja to go to bed. Shikamaru was abusing his shadow technique and laughing at Naruto as he made his blonde haired friend contort in many painful looking positions.

Stepping out of the darkened area, Asuma moved swiftly enough for the wasted Shikamaru not to have enough time to react, and quickly pressed an artery in his upper neck. Feeling the boy go limp in his arms, he slung him over his shoulder and began walking towards the exit of the pub.

Naruto and Kiba stumbled to the floor as soon as the technique had been released. They too had passed out. Chuckling, Asuma left them there to fend for themselves. The massive hangovers they would be experiencing once they woke up would be enough punishment.

----------------

Translation Note: Kagemane no Jutsu : Shadow Imitation Technique

A/N: Wow, this chapter was quite long. Eheh, I had some inspiration last night and I just had to get it down before I lost any of it. I hope you guys liked it. I did some back story on our favorite Sand siblings. I hope it wasn't boring. I also had a little fun with our drunken Shikamaru. I could have done more with that, but I want to do my best to keep him in character. The next chapter should begin our Shimari goodness. Thanks for reading! Please review if you can!